Cinco de Mayo Fun

We always have fun with Cinco de Mayo, some years we go out

to eat with friends, some years we have a Fiesta at our house for

friends, some years it is just the three of us. This year was just us..

not so much a Fiesta, as "taco night",lol. We have tacos every week here

in our corner of the Garden State. Farmer Dad loves, no, make that LOVES tacos! I make them with meat, and "fake" meat.They both prefer meat, I prefer "fake" meat.

I vary it, so they don't notice so much.

Either way, I "hide" veg inside the tacos. See the tacky packets of "hot sauce" from a greasy food chain? He HAS to have it on his tacos. I have made my own..not what he wants.

I pick my battles. ;-)

Princess helped set the table (I was going for the colors in the Mexican flag, she though very multi-colored was better for our Fiesta)

I let her just go for it when she helps set the table, I try not to say.."that doesn't go", or "not those napkins.." You might notice I give Farmer Dad a "platter" with his tacos made up, Princess gets the supplies for two tacos on her plate. I find I can get two meals out of the meat this way. He would cram the shell full of meat, he is not hungry after I make them, so I don't think he needs all that meat at one sitting. We're not getting any younger, so I try to watch his eating habits a bit more.Princess likes to "make her own", and will eat it all if I let her, if I make them, she just "picks". We had a nice dinner after a nice day spent watching Baby "X-man" for a little while. He had fun hanging out with his cousin Princess.He really likes when she sings to him.

Need a Good Picture Book?

I'm not sure how the weather is wherever you are, but here in
the Garden State, it is raining..again. (10 points if you are now hearing Supertramp)
The best way to salvage some joy out of our week, was to head to the library
and get some "fresh reads". Here are a couple of the books in our Library bag this week

There is a Flower at the Tip of My Nose Smelling Me

Pulitzer Prize winning author, Alice Walker invites you to

see the world, and your place in it through new eyes.

The illustrations are happy and well worth picking this book up

alone, the poetry just makes you glad you did.

This book fits really well into our talking about creativity right now.

Firefighters in the Dark

This story is about a little girl who can hear fire sirens from the fire station near her house at night.Even though it is dark, she imagines where they are going, and all the brave feats they are accomplishing. We hear them pass our house quite often as well, so I thought it a good choice to

use as we talked about International Firefighters Day

on the 4Th.

In honor of International Migratory Bird Day,which is the 9Th, we are reading

Luck The Story of a Sand hill Crane

This book tells the story of a young sand hill crane who is saved by a little girl, a starts the migration to Siberia .His parents use the rivers,mountains and lakes to guide their way, but Luck uses man-made objects, windmills, sunglasses, and a baby carriage to find his way. Luck and his parents use s special song to find one another, and soon thousands of other cranes join them. Princess especially loved the happy ending.

In honor of Cinco de Mayo,

The Rainbow Tulip

We enjoyed this lovely story about a Mexican-American girl finding her place in the world. The paintings in the book are wonderful and soft, and we liked that she didn't try to "blend in", choosing instead to enjoy the difference which her mother likens to lime sherbet, both sweet and sour.This was a great book for us, as my Princess finds it difficult to "fit in" as well.

Clara & Senor Frog

This story is about a girl who discovers she has the power to create magic with her paintbrush. With art work that evokes the very essence of Mexican art, and a character very like Diego Rivera, it was a lot of fun. It gave us something to talk about Mexico and art..both topics in our homeschool this month. Now we need to get the house ready for Cinco de Mayo tonight, which in our New Jersey home means TACOS!! Pretty much a once a week hit around here anyway. Princess has been using this site today as well. We printed these out too.